SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — State officials reported Tuesday that residents in drought-stricken California met Gov. Jerry Brown's call to slash water use by 20 percent for the first time in December, when water use fell by 22 percent compared to the same month in 2013.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Promising to help America's middle class, President Barack Obama on Monday sent Congress a record $4 trillion budget that would hammer corporate profits overseas and raise taxes on the wealthy while boosting tax credits for families and the working poor.

NEW YORK (AP) — Standard & Poor's is paying about $1.38 billion to settle government allegations that it knowingly inflated its ratings of risky mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis.

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers will vote Tuesday on whether to let scientists use controversial techniques to create babies from the DNA of three people — a move that could prevent children from inheriting potentially fatal diseases yet would make Britain the first country in the world to allow embryos to be genetically modified.

BOSTON (AP) — Frigid temperatures descended on the northern tier of the country, and while it's not the coldest weather of the season, the biting chill followed a powerful snowstorm from the Midwest into the Northeast.